Elections in Afghanistan & GermanyMeanwhile Afghanis and Germans head to the polls. Gateway Pundit & Afgahn Lord are covering Afghanistan. From what I've seen, the ballot is extremely complicatd (several thousand candidates) and they're distributing ballots to the more remote regions of Afghanistan via donkey. Needless to say, if things go well, you're unlikely to hear about it, so as usual, look to the net for news.

With regard to the German election, it seems that Schroeder's SDP is still languishing in the 30s and can only beat a CDU/FDP coalition with a left-wing coalition of the SDP, Green, and the Left Party (which is a bunch of former commies). Only after these 3 parties are put together does Schroeder come close to Merkel's CDU/FDP percentage of the vote. The media seems to be pushing for a grand coalition government (with the SDP and the CDU sharing power), but this is just idiotic. Here's a telling quote from Schroeder:

He urged supporters of his left-of-center Social Democratic Party to bring out any undecided voters they know.

"Think about bringing grandma and grandpa with you _ but only if they're going to vote for the SPD," he said.

As I've said here and here, I think Schroeder and his SDP are toast and this clearly is the statement of someone who is desperate. With 11.5% unemployment, the industrious Germans surely want a change and even more leftist policies isn't likely to intice them. If they do pull out an upset, it will only be because they're including the most extreme elements of German politics in their government. BTW, the FDP is similar to the Lib Dems in the UK (centrist party between the CDU and the SDP), so a coalition government between Merkel's Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats would mean a slightly right of center party.

Hurrican KatrinaRush Limbaugh pointed out on Friday that Mary Landreuaauix (D-LA) knows how to get buses going within 45 minutes to get people where they need to be... just as long as it's election day. It's a shame the the Democratic pols who were "leading" the city in preparation for the hurrican didn't put those skills to work. If only Sunday, August 28th was an election day, many lives might have been saved.

Possibly they carelessly assumed it was just the usual nickel’n’dime UN corruption — like the child-sex rings and drug cartels that operate out of pretty well every peacekeeping operation. But the point is, while it may have happened on Kofi’s watch, he wasn’t watching, so that’s OK. Like OJ promising to hunt down the real killers, Mr Annan and Mme Frechette are committed to staying in their jobs and redoubling their efforts to spearhead the reforms the UN vitally needs. As the media ‘talking points’ distributed by the secretary-general to his underlings put it, ‘It is time to focus on the important reform agenda’ because ‘the inquiry’s findings underscore the vital importance of proposed management reforms’. And if we say ‘vital’ and ‘focus’ and ‘underscore’ often enough, this whole thing will fade away and it will be back to business as usual.

I, too, am in favour of Kofi Annan staying on, not just till his term expires in December 2006, but for five, ten years after that, if he wishes. If I was as eager for UN ‘reform’ as its supporters claim to be, I’d toss Kofi to the sharks and get some new broom in to sweep clean. But if, as I do, you believe 90 per cent of UN ‘reforms’ are likely to be either meaningless or actively harmful, a discredited and damaged secretary-general clinging to office is as good as it’s likely to get — short of promoting Didier Bourguet, the UN staffer in Congo and the Central African Republic charged with running a paedophile ring. A UN that refuses to hold Kofi Annan to account will be harder to pass off as a UN that represents the world’s ‘moral authority’, in Clare Short’s blissfully surreal characterisation.